Live Best With Judy Barbe: Food Safety

Foodborne illness sickens more than 76 million people in the United States every year leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. But there are easy steps to avoid food making you sick.

1. First, wash your hands – that should take at least 20 seconds – about how long it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song.

2. Then clean your work surfaces and give vegetables and fruits a good rinse.

3. Separate raw, cooked, and ready-to-eat foods while shopping, storing, and preparing them. An example of this is don’t use the same plate to carry the raw burgers to the grill and the cooked ones back to the kitchen.

3. Cook foods to a safe temperature. A food thermometer is the only way to tell.

4. And then chill foods promptly. It’s OK to put hot foods in the refrigerator. But smaller containers of foods will cool more quickly, than say, a large pot of chili.

But what you really want to know is: can you eat leftover pizza? Yes! Pizza that was stored in the refrigerator within two hours after cooking you can safely eat.